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Google Announces New Cross-Device Features for Google Analytics

Yesterday, Google announced new Cross-Device beta features for Google Analytics (GA). GA will now help you understand how non-logged in users are interacting with your site across devices. Google is able to do this by leveraging what they call the ‘Google Graph’, which tracks users across devices that are logged into Google services, like Google Drive, Gmail, and YouTube.

This new functionality will add a few new Cross-Device reports to GA for deeper analysis. Additionally, it will allow advertisers to create smarter audiences for ads and remarketing. You can now leverage this cross-device tracking to create ads that are more relevant and provide a more useful experience.

Say, for instance, you want to create a promotion for your most loyal customers that have purchased $100 or more of products in the past 6 months. Previously, a guest user that bought $50 worth of products on their phone and $50 worth of products on their laptop would be treated as two separate users, each spending $50. Now, by leveraging the Google Graph (as long as this user is signed into Google services on both devices), Google will know it’s one person that has spent $100. This allows for much more accurate audience reporting and targeting.

You will also be able to create remarketing audiences based on how many times users visit your website across multiple devices.

These features are currently in beta and will be rolling out to users in the coming weeks. To take advantage of these new features, you will need to activate Google Signals. Do so by going into GA’s Admin section and choose the setting to activate Google Signals. It’s ok if you don’t see this setting right now; it’ll show up in the coming weeks.

We’re really excited about yesterday’s announcement. Tracking non-logged-in users across devices has been pretty much impossible up until this point, so these new cross-device capabilities leveraging the Google Graph is just what we’ve been waiting for. We’re looking forward to this beta feature rolling out in the coming weeks.

Have questions? Reach out to us for more information on how you can best leverage these new features!